MLS All-Star Game: How do they measure up?

Midfielder Freddie Ljungberg spent almost his entire soccer career at the highest levels of the sport, playing for a decade in the English Premier League while competing in the European Championships and two World Cups before moving to the Seattle Sounders and Major League Soccer this season.

So what does he make of his new league?

"It's of course different from Europe," he said. "But it's good."

By that, he means that it's more physical (and by extension, less skilled and polished) than the top flights. But particularly now that Ljungberg has joined the MLS All-Stars who will challenge Everton FC -- a team he used to face regularly while playing for Arsenal and West Ham United in the Premier League -- in their

annual game at Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday night, that answer seems to raise another question:

Namely, just how good are these guys?

Surely nobody would argue that MLS as a whole can stack up against the best leagues in the world. In many places, it's regarded as little more than a soccer backwater. But what about a collection of its best players? Dropped onto the table of the Prem, La Liga in Spain or the Bundesliga in Germany, could Ljungberg and his new colleagues -- including Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales -- hold their own?

"The All-Star team would have a chance," goalkeeper Kasey Keller said. "You have guys who have that experience. If you put together the right team from America, then

you'd have a chance."

And Keller knows of which he speaks.

Like his new teammate, the longtime anchor of the United States national team has spent much of his club career in some of the best leagues in the world, having played for Rayo Vallecano in La Liga, Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham in the EPL and Borussia Monchengladbach in the Bundesliga, among others.

And while Ljungberg compares MLS both structurally and talent-wise to perhaps the top flight in the Netherlands -- the Eredivisie , just so you know -- Keller noted that the league has "done very well" against top international competition in all-star games, and said its best players probably could form a respectable European team.

"There's a lot of talent in this league," he said. But the league's $2.3 million salary cap "makes it very difficult to have all that talent on one field. So when you can go into an all-star situation and have that, you're probably looking at a cap in that game of close to $15 million, which gets a little bit more in line with some of the smaller teams in Europe."

Undoubtedly, the team that will face Everton is not without talent.

While the league has long been known as sort of a final stop for aging legends such as Keller, Ljungberg and Chicago's Cuauhtemoc Blanco -- the popular World Cup veteran from Mexico -- its team that will take on Everton also features promising young talent such as Seattle's Fredy Montero, Chicago's Bakary Soumare and Houston's Stuart Holden. Montero has had to deny that he has been in talks with Fulham, while Soumare is reportedly set to join a team in France's Ligue One and Holden has impressed with his strong performance at the Gold Cup.

All that, in addition to the experienced veterans such as Landon Donovan of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Conor Casey of the Colorado Rapids who are on the roster.

"Our guys are able to play at their level," RSL's Clint Mathis insisted.

Mathis is something of an authority, too, having once ranked as one of the world's top players who starred at a World Cup and played for Hannover in the Bundesliga. He's not an MLS All-Star this season, despite feelings in some quarters that he's the most deserving RSL player, but isn't alone in his assessment of the league.

"The MLS is making big strides and big improvements," said David Moyes, the Everton coach whose team has visited the United States for preseason training five times in the past six years. "Every year I come over, I'm seeing things that I wasn't seeing a few years ago."

mcl@sltrib.com